Sunday, November 13, 2011

Girls Night Out

This is what Monica wanted to watch last night.

We've been roommates for about a year and a half, and now we're splitting to do the wedded-domestic thing. Monica's also getting married next year, and she leaves for Texas in one week. So we needed a last ladies night out . . . watching Pacquiao vs. Marquez. I had no idea Monica followed boxing. She says she doesn't. She only follows Manny Pacquiao. He's a Catholic, he's a Filipino congressman, a military reservist, a dad of 4 kids, and he knocks people out. He's 32 years old and has a pretty impressive rags to riches story.

So, we first got dinner at Bamian Afghan--another winner from the Cheap Eats List. This place is so good! We've been twice now. I don't think there's any entree over $16. I've gotten different rice and kabob dishes there, but always start off with the mantu (scallion and meat dumplings with yogurt sauce and this awesome mint relish) and hot sambosa (fried pastries with creamy chickpea filling). It's a nice restaurant, with real linen napkins and everything. There was live music last night too.

We've had good luck with their wine list also. The other week we got Hob Nob's (French) pinot noir, which was good. And last night we got a DeLoach (California) pinot noir, which was even better. I kept wanting to just sniff the glass, it smelled so good. Something else I owe Monica for: Introducing me to pinot noirs last year. They're red (yay!) and really easy going. You can sip them on their own and won't need a steak to keep them company.

After eating our fill of Afghan food, we went to a sports bar in Ballston to catch the pay-per-view fight. (It was funny. Earlier in the day I was leaving the parking garage, and the register attendant said to me eagerly, "You watching the fight tonight?" Any other day I would have answered "Huh? What fight? Who's fighting?" because I don't follow sports much at all. But yesterday I could honestly answer "Why, yes I am! actually.")

We got to the bar just in time. The fight didn't start for another hour or so, but we were lucky enough to catch a table and chairs before it filled up. We were right in front of 2 t.v. screens, and close to the door, so we got chummy with Jeremy the bouncer, who was super nice. One friend joined us 5 minutes before the fight started, and Jeremy let her in without the cover-charge, and found her another chair. . . . And went to adjust the A.C. because the vent was blowing right on Monica. . . . And went to turn up the television volume and/or the close captioning.

T.v. volume wasn't an issue once the fight started; the whole bar fell silent. It was the first time I'd watched a full 12 rounds. Now there's a boxing plus over football: 12 rounds are much easier to follow than 4 football quarters. From someone who doesn't know what she's talking about, the match looked really close. They were both so fast! And seemed especially so after watching a heavyweight fight the hour prior. Going into the last 2 rounds, neither Pacquiao nor Marquez even looked tired. Both men finished standing, and the judges scored in favor of Pacquiao. However, the bar's bathroom-line-jury was overwhelmingly in favor of Marquez.